ABSTRACT
The four major building orientations, North, South, East, and West, receive different heat gains causing different indoor temperature and cooling demand within spaces. In fitness and sport centres, the different spaces have differing thermal requirements for occupants' comfort, where fitness activities require low air temperature, and sauna/spa/pool activities require higher temperatures. Air conditioning and ventilation account for highest amount (42%) of energy usage within fitness and sport centres and this significant energy usage can be reduced by thermally zoning the different spaces within the centres. Thermal zoning involves coordinating and placing spaces based on a buildings natural susceptibility to heat gain and thermal requirements of spaces. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of thermal zoning on cooling energy consumption within fitness and sport centres in warm humid region of Nigeria. Three different fitness and sport complexes namely University of Benin Indoor Sport Centre, Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium Indoor Sport Centre, and Mayfair Fitness centres were assessed for this study. Field measurements of indoor air temperature of different spaces within the four orientations in the three different indoor fitness and sport complexes are recorded using dry and wet bulb thermometers in the hottest season of the year at 8am, 1pm and 5pm for five consecutive days in 2016 and the result is validated using the Autodesk Ecotect computer simulation software. Also, primary data from the three case studies are collected to model and simulate the predicted cooling energy demand using Autodesk Revit and Autodesk Ecotect simulation software respectively. The air temperature recorded for the four orientations of University of Benin Sport centre, Samuel Ogbemudia Sport Centre, and Mayfair fitness centre are compared and the result from the analysis shows that the North orientation for all cases experiences the lowest internal average temperature of 26.750C throughout the day, the east 28.180C, vii south 29.750C and the west 310C. The cooling demand predicted for the four orientations were also compared and the result from the analysis shows that the spaces within the North orientation for the three cases demands about 255KWhm-2, 244KWhm- 2 and 228KWhm-2, the South 234KWhm-2, 236KWhm-2and 200KWhm-2, East 245KWhm-2, 230KWhm-2 and 252KWhm-2, West 278KWhm-2, 281KWhm-2, and 252KWhm-2. This result shows that there is a heat gain difference of about 20C to 30C between all orientations and also there can be a significant energy savings of about 18% between the North orientation which has the lowest energy demand and the West orientation which has the highest energy demand. Therefore, spaces with low temperature requirements such as sport halls, fitness gym should be placed within orientation or zones with lower cooling energy demand while spaces with high temperature requirements such as sauna/pool/spa, should be located within orientation with higher temperature and higher cooling demand.